At the 2008 annual meeting of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, then-Senator Barack Obama endorsed changing teacher compensation structures from traditional single salary schedules—where teachers are paid based only on their educational credentials and years of experience—to one reflecting the performance of individual teachers in the classroom. His mention of pay [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Teacher Compensation'
Economic Theory in Teacher Salaries: Why the ProComp Negotiations Matter
Imagine you have complete control over a new school district. You need to design a salary structure that fits what we know about education. Empirical evidence suggests that:
Teachers have steep learning curves, making dramatic improvements in the first few years, but showing few gains, or possibly even slowing, as they near retirement.
Teachers, as [...]
The Math of Merit Pay
Bured in yesterday’s Ed Week write-up ($) of McCain’s speech was a quote that nicely sums up the common concerns over merit pay:
Bettye Oldham, a retired teacher from Cincinnati, said she had mixed feelings about the merit-pay proposal.
“I think it’s a good idea if it’s run correctly,” she said. “But you can’t judge teachers the [...]
Breaking the Greed / Virtue Dichotomy in Teacher Pay
Commenting on the new issue of Quality Counts, which compares states on teacher pay measures and suggests that teachers make less than comparable professions, AFTie Ed says:
It leaves open the question of why people go into teaching. As the song says “it’s not about a salary, it’s all about reality, teachers teach and do the [...]
Merit Pay Mania
I’m a day late to the merit pay roundabout between the American Prospect’s Ezra Klein, the Atlantic’s Matt Yglesias, and the New Republic’s Jason Zengerle. But the points are still worth discussing, particularly Ezra’s kick-off post, which begins thusly:
I’m always amused by well-paid journalists and pundits complaining that teacher’s compensation isn’t closely enough linked to [...]
Lies My Teachers Told Me
Over at the Huffington Post, Marc Lampkin from ED in 08 notes that the NEA’s characterization of the merit pay conversation at the recent Democratic presidential debate in Iowa was…less than accurate. The NEA press release said:
“Democrats running for president reject any mandatory pay-for-performance schemes as part of the reauthorization of the federal No Child [...]
The Unions Come Clean
Over at EdWise, Leo Casey finally reveals the answer to the Master’s degree mystery. It’s well worth reading, because Leo describes exactly what’s wrong with teacher policy today. But first, a few house-cleaning items:
Leo alleges that the Clotfelder, Ladd, and Vigdor (CLV) study cited in the previous post refutes the findings and recommendations in the [...]
Radio Silence from Teachers Unions
After near 24 hours, no response yet from my challenge to teachers union bloggers to defend the indefensible–spending billions of dollars of taxpayer’s and teachers money on Master’s degrees that don’t improve teaching. (It’s possible ,of course, that Leo Casey is simply in the middle of composing an 8,000-word response and has been held up [...]
Teacher Experience, Effectiveness, Etc.
Edwize has a extra-long post from Leo Casey (is there any other kind?) responding to what I wrote a few days ago about the Aspen Commission, value-added measures of teacher effectiveness, and teacher experience.
In addition to finding my writing less than fully felicitous (dude–that’s cold) Leo seems to think we disagree about the impact of [...]
Stop. No, STOP. Read this Report.
This report should be ( and I promise this phrase will be used with extreme judiciousness here at the Quick and the Ed) required reading for anyone interested in improving the quality of teachers in American classrooms.
Written by Robert Gordon, Thomas Kane, and Douglas Staiger, the premise is straightforward: school districts should pay less attention [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.